On Super Bowl day, I wasn’t all that interested in the outcome of the football game. I was excited for something else—the rumor that a new Cloverfield movie was going to drop that same night. 10 Cloverfield Lane was fantastic, I thought, so maybe this will be too. I’m totally going to stay up and watch this! An hour later, I realized I had been tricked in by JJ Abrams’ latest marketing gimmick.

The Cloverfield Paradox is not good. By now, most people have heard the movie is mediocre. But you know what? I still really liked watching it. In the latest podcast episode of Fave This, Gita Jackson and I dive into the Cloverfield universe and its ongoing alternate reality game that encourages viewers to figure out the wider untold story hiding in the margins. We also talk about JJ Abrams’ inability to follow through on good ideas and how Netflix has become a dumping ground for shows and movies that aren’t good but still manage to keep you watching anyway. SPOILER WARNING: we talk about the plot of all three Cloverfield movies. The Cloverfield discussion in particular starts at the beginning of the podcast.

Around the 47:25 mark, we discuss the recent Shadow of the Colossus remake and the anxiety that some of the magic has been lost in an attempt to update and modernize the game. We also discuss when games inspire us to take up a hobby or interest in real life.

We’re on iTunes here (leave us a review!), Google Play, Spotify, Sticher, and iHeartRadio. Send us some reader mail with questions or topic suggestions at favethis@kotaku.com, or tweet at us with the hashtag #favethis. I’d particularly love it if you emailed or commented with whether you’d meet yourself in an alternate universe, how you’d go about it, and whether or not it’s a good idea in the first place.